Discrimination inside Israel

Mossawa Center in Haifa

Israel prides itself in being a democracy, but discriminates against the one in five citizens who is a Palestinian, according to the Mossawa Advocacy Center, an NGO in Haifa. (Mossawa means "quality" in Arabic.)

For example, the Education Ministry runs separate schools for Arab citizens, and they get one-third less  budget  than the schools for Jewish citizens. Mossawa's Deputy Director, Rania Laham, told us that the Arab schools are overcrowded, with students studying outdoors in both summer and winter.

Mossawa Deputy Director Rania Laham

Rania says that Mossawa won a court case to force authorities to remove asbestos from a school and add classrooms, but they have still not put in the gym and science lab ordered by the court. She says Arab schools have no vocational guidance, and only 9% of the Arab students go to the university. "It's easier for them to get into foreign universities than ones in their own country," she said.

Every year Mossawa fights the "temporary" 2003 law that prohibits Israeli citizens from remaining in the country with spouses from the occupied territories, even if they were married years ago when it was legal. In 2004 the law was changed to allow couples' children under the age of 12 to remain in Israel, and a few years later the government allowed women over 25 and men over 35 to come to live with spouses in Israel. However, Rania says this is controlled by the Army and it sometimes will only grant the permit in return for the applicant's agreeing to be a spy for Israel.

Photos of Israeli Arabs shot by police

Rania showed us a five-year old poster with pictures of 33 Israeli Arabs shot and killed by police, and said there have been more since then, but only two of the police officers were indicted. In one case, the autopsy confirmed that the victim had been shot in the head at close range--not in self-defense as the officer claimed--but the officer was sentenced to only 15 months in prison. When Mossawa appealed, the Supreme Court agreed this was too lenient, and doubled the sentence to 30 months. However, the officer was freed after 19 months because of "overcrowding in the prisons."

Rania says discrimination against Palestinians in Israel also involves infrastructure, and Nazareth, the city where Jesus grew up, does not have a sewage system. Mossawa is also championing the cause of 35,000 Bedouins threatened with forced relocation from the Negev.

Mossawa is inviting other groups in Israel to cooperate in its work for equal rights--Russians, Ethiopians, Oriental Jews, and Reformed Jews. The group's website is www.mossawa.org.

We are staying in Haifa at the Stella Maris Carmelite Pilgrim Center, an inspiring setting with a beautiful view of the Mediterranean.

Arch outside Pilgrim Center

Virgin in Stella Maris Basilica